Eosinophilic inflammation in asthma

Article Abstract:

Asthma is a lung condition in which spasms of the muscles surrounding the bronchioles produce constriction of the duct system (tiny air passages). However, the most characteristic condition associated with asthma is bronchial inflammation. Eosinophils are a class of white blood cells that have a strong affinity for the eosin dye component of a chemical stain used to prepare blood smears for microscopic observation. Increased levels of eosinophils have been considered be an indication of inflammation. Patients with asthma normally have an increased number of eosinophils in their peripheral blood and sputum, and in washings of the bronchioles and alveoli (tiny air cells). Similarly, microscopic examinations of lung tissue taken at autopsy of asthma patients who died of their disease reveal a high number of eosinophils. While findings concerning an association between increased numbers of eosinophils and asthma occur frequently, other studies do not confirm these results. The controversial role of the eosinophil in asthma was investigated by comparing 10 normal volunteers with 43 chronic asthma patients. Bronchoalveolar washings were taken from the asthma patients, but not from the normal subjects. Samples of tissue taken from the asthma patients by bronchoscopy were compared with autopsy specimens taken from patients who did not have asthma. Peripheral blood cell counts and other physiologic measurements of lung function were performed on asthmatic patients and volunteers. The number of eosinophils in these patients correlated in a statistically significant manner with the clinical severity of asthma and lung impairment, as measured by pulmonary function tests. In addition, microhistochemical analysis of eosinophils recovered by washings of the bronchioles and alveoli correlated with the severity of the patients' asthma symptoms. Biopsy samples demonstrated that eosinophils were found only in the asthma patients' respiratory epithelium (which lines the bronchioles and alveolar air cells), and reflected the severity of epithelial damage. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Diagnosis, Physiological aspects, Asthma, Lungs, Eosinophils, Lung biopsy, Eosinophil disorders, Bronchoalveolar lavage

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Relationship Between Interleukin 6 and Mortality in Patients With Unstable Coronary Artery Disease: Effects of an Early Invasive or Noninvasive Strategy

Article Abstract:

Patients with symptoms of a heart attack who have increased blood levels of interleukin-6 may benefit from angioplasty or other procedures that open blocked coronary arteries. In a study of 3,269 patients with heart attack symptoms, those with increased interleukin-6 levels had higher mortality rates. Angioplasty reduced this mortality rate.

Health aspects, Heart attack, Myocardial revascularization, Interleukin-6

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Markers of myocardial damage and inflammation in relation to long-term mortality in unstable coronary artery disease

Article Abstract:

Elevated blood levels of troponin T and C-reactive protein may predict which patients with severe coronary artery disease will die. Troponin T is a marker of heart damage and C-reactive protein is a marker of inflammation.

Coronary heart disease

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